Sleep Hygiene

There can be a variety of reasons, including nutrition, but one of the simplest lifestyle habits we can look at is sleep.

If you’ve been following me for a while you probably know that I am a fan of having good sleep “hygiene”.

What’s that you may ask?

Well, it’s a way to ensure you get a good nights sleep by following certain rules including:

1. Having a room as dark as a cave – so no l.e.d lights showing (in hotels I turn clocks around and cover TV light with something). At home we have black out blinds so that in summer when sun rises early (and I don’t want to) I won’t be awoken by light.

2. A cool room with some air – having a window open is vital and if you live somewhere where there is outside noise you may need earplugs to help at first until you get used to it. Ideal temperature is 60-67 so maybe you need to turn down the radiators in the bedroom if you like the rest of the house cosy.

3. Establishing a good wind down routine is essential and that means turning off phones, laptops and any other “blue light” brain stimulants at least 30 mins before sleep. Better to switch to reading a good old fashioned book if you want to wind down. Having a bath will also help as it raises your external heat so your core temperature drops slightly.

4. I’ve put this as a separate point because I think it is too common – do not have your smart phone in the bedroom as an alarm. Go get a cheap battery powered travel one and use that and turn your wifi and phone off at night and keep in another room. The electromagnetic frequencies are messing with our brains and at night when we are trying to repair we shouldn’t be interfering with it.

5. Don’t do a hardcore workout too close to bedtime as it will stimulate your central nervous system. Yoga and stretching exercise is better late in the evening.

6. You probably know that avoiding stimulants such as coffee in the afternoon is wise if you have trouble sleeping and also not eating a rich, heavy meal late at night won’t help you drift off either so pay attention to those habits.

7. Getting outdoors into natural daylight, especially in the winter will also help you sleep better along with regular exercise – I always sleep better the days I have exercised. That’s one of the benefits of our group outdoor exercises in Bath at Zest Bootcamp.

8. Trying to get up and go to bed around the same time each day will also improve your ability to sleep.

So hopefully that will give you some ideas and here is the science bit….

Click here to read a great article about WHY we need to get more sleep – it’s very informative and a bit worrying really at how damaging the lack of sleep can be.

Go on have a read – you may not know that sleep has a huge impact on weight loss too.

And if you’d like to get a healthy eating kickstart then grab a free copy of my 7 day kickstart packed with delicious, filling recipes HERE.

Sweet dreams

Zita x

ps I’d love to know what you do to get a better night’s sleep so let me know below …